Ellen Byron: Mardi Gras Memories

Today’s Louisiana Book News guest blogger is Ellen Byron, author of the award-winning Cajun Country Mysteries series. Ellen lives in Los Angeles but her heart remains in Louisiana.

In my lifetime thus far, I’ve laissez les bon temps rouler-ed my way through three New Orleans Mardi Gras celebrations, each of which left me with indelible memories.

My first Mardi Gras took place only a few weeks after transferring to Tulane University from a state school in New York. Ira, a friend from my former college, drove all the way down from Binghamton, New York, determined to party his brains out. I let him. I was homesick and had yet to make friends, so I pretty much wandered around on my own that year. If you think the phrase “depressing Mardi Gras” is an oxymoron, I can tell you from experience that it’s not. Even Ira didn’t have the Mardi Gras he dreamed of. He cut his foot on broken glass on Bourbon Street and spent most of Fat Tuesday in the ER waiting to be stitched up.

My second Mardi Gras was a giant step up from the first. I joined a sorority and between that and my theatre department pals, finally found my tribe. We drank like fish, danced in the streets, begged for beads, and dressed up as God knows what. Seriously, when I look at the one photo I have of me in costume, I have no idea what I’m supposed to be. A doll, maybe? Bottom line, despite the crowds and craziness, I had a great time.

By my third holiday, I was a bit of a Mardi Gras snob. Too cool to mingle with the rabble on the streets, I only graced parades that I could watch from a porch or balcony. My best friend was a debutante that year, the queen of Proteus and a maid in the court of Rex. I went to balls like I was a local, even though I had the second-class ticket that restricted attendees to watching the party from the Municipal Auditorium balcony unless a masked Krewe member handed you a call-out card. My sexy roommate got one of those. I didn’t. Still, I’ve been dining out on my Mardi Gras ball anecdotes for years.

When I began my Cajun Country Mysteries series, I knew one of the books would revolve around Mardi Gras. Given where the series is set, I wanted the focus to be on the unique Cajun tradition of Courir de Mardi Gras, which translates as Mardi Gras Run.  I haven’t personally experienced a Run – it is so on my bucket list – but my dear friend, renowned New Orleans artist Jan Gilbert has, so I borrowed her memories and photographs for Mardi Gras Murder, supplemented with a lot of research.

Our daughter Eliza is a freshman at Loyola University this year. I’ve been brazen in my efforts to help her have a Mardi Gras she’ll never forget, even joking – okay, half-joking – that she should befriend some native New Orleans girls in the hopes that one will be a debutante and snag her an invitation to a ball. But Eliza doesn’t need my help because unless you spend all of Mardi Gras black-out drunk, it’s impossible not to build a bank of memories from the most unique celebration in the country. Memories that live on long after the last strand of throw beads is tossed from a float into a sea of eager hands below.

Ellen Byron’s bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries have won Best Humorous Mystery Lefty awards and been nominated for multiple Agatha’s. The newest addition, Mardi Gras Murder, was lauded as “a winner” by Publishers Weekly. Writing as Maria DiRico, she’ll debut a second series, The Catering Hall Mysteries, in 2020. Her TV credits include Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents. Fun fact: she worked as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.

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Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "Emilie," book one of The Cajun Series, "Ticket to Paradise," book one of The Cajun Embassy series and "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.